SHORTAGE of qualified medics means paediatric care is at breaking point with longterm unfilled vacancies, it has been claimed.

CHILDREN’S wards are under threat from a hospital staffing crisis, senior doctors have warned.

A shortage of qualified medics has left paediatric care at breaking point, with some vacancies going unfilled for years.

At the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Yorkhill, Glasgow, one consultant vacancy has been advertised since March 2011 and another since July last year.

Last summer, the children’s ward at St John’s Hospital in Livingston was shut for three weeks due to staffing issues and 35 children had to be sent to the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Edinburgh.

Consultant Dr Andrew Eccleston, of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, said: “There is a national crisis in terms of paediatric staff.

“If you have not got a doctor to fill a slot on a rota, you’ve only got two options – either close your service or bring in the consultants.

“The risk is that, on occasion, we are sailing so close to the limit of our resources that we might reach a position where we cannot keep the service running.

“You don’t want these children to be having to be transferred somewhere else for treatment, not over any kind of distance.”

Dr Graeme Eunson, a consultant paediatrician and member of the Scottish Council of the BMA, added: “At present, there are an awful lot of short-term fixes – people working beyond their normal hours, people being drafted in to do additional shifts.

“That can work up to a certain point but there does need to be an increase in the paediatric consultant workforce.”

According to data released under Freedom of Information laws, most health boards are short of paediatric doctors.

The vacancies are now harder to fill because new immigration rules ban recruitment from outside the EU.

Female doctors requesting maternity leave and part-time working, and European legislation restricting working hours have also led to decreased staff numbers.

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